{{short description|English cleric and botanist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}} '''Gerard Edwards Smith''' (1804–1881) was a Church of England cleric and botanist.

==Life== Born at Camberwell, Surrey, he was sixth son of Henry Smith. He entered Merchant Taylors' School in January 1814, and St. John's College, Oxford, as Andrew's exhibitioner, in 1822; he graduated B.A. in 1829.<ref name="DNB">{{cite DNB|wstitle=Smith, Gerard Edward|volume=53}}</ref><ref>s:Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715-1886/Smith, Gerard Edwards</ref> He was ordained that year, and became a curate at Sellinge; and then at Stoughton, West Sussex and East Marden in 1833.<ref>{{CCEd |type=person |id=66904 |name=Smith, Gerard Edwards |year1=1829 |year2=1833 |accessed=21 February 2017}}</ref>

Smith was vicar of St. Peter-the-Less, Chichester, from 1835 to 1836; rector of North Marden, Sussex, from 1836 to 1843; vicar of Cantley, near Doncaster, Yorkshire, from 1844 to 1846, and perpetual curate of Ashton Hayes, Cheshire, from 1849 to 1853. He was vicar of Osmaston-by-Ashbourne, Derbyshire, from 1854 to 1871. He died at Ockbrook, near Derby, on 21 December 1881, and his herbarium was preserved at University College, Nottingham.<ref name="DNB"/>

==Works== Before being ordained Smith published his major botanical work, ''A Catalogue of rare or remarkable Phanogamous Plants collected in South Kent'', London, 1829, which is dated from Sandgate. The ''Catalogue'', of 76 pages, is arranged by the Linnæan system, deals critically with several groups, and had coloured plates drawn by the author.<ref name="DNB"/>

Smith was the first to recognise several British plants, describing ''Statice occidentalis'' under the name ''S. binervosa'' in the ''Supplement to English Botany'' (1831, p.&nbsp;63), and ''Filago apiculata'' in ''The Phytologist'' for 1846 (p.&nbsp;575). He contributed ''Remarks on Ophrys'' to John Claudius Loudon's ''Magazine of Natural History'' in 1828 (i. 398); ''On the Claims of Alyssum calycinum to a place in the British Flora'' to ''The Phytologist'' for 1845 (ii. 232); a preface to W. E. Howe's ''Ferns of Derbyshire'' in 1861, enlarged in the edition of 1877; and ''Notes on the Flora of Derbyshire'' to the ''Journal of Botany, British and Foreign'' for 1881. Other works were:<ref name="DNB"/>

* ''Stonehenge, a poem'', Oxford, 1823, signed "Sir Oracle, Ox. Coll.", humorous. * ''Are the Teachings of Modern Science antagonistic to the Doctrine of an Infallible Bible?'' London, 1863. * ''The Holy Scriptures the original Great Exhibition for all Nations'', an allegory, London, 1865. * ''What a Pretty Garden! or Cause and Effect in Floriculture'', Ashbourne, 1865.

{{botanist|G.E.Sm.|inline=yes}}

==Notes== {{reflist}}

;Attribution {{DNB|wstitle=Smith, Gerard Edward|volume=53}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Gerard Edwards}} Category:1804 births Category:1881 deaths Category:19th-century English Anglican priests Category:People from Camberwell Category:Parson-naturalists Category:People from Derbyshire Dales (district) Category:19th-century English botanists